Segmenting Your Online Retail Marketing Efforts
Technology has created a state of perpetual motion, which is driving profound changes to the way businesses are operating, particularly in the online retail space. Being noticed in the online world is often about ‘disrupting the way people think or operate’ and as online retailers we need to build this philosophy into our thinking. ‘Disrupting processes’ and ‘Frictionless Transacting’ are some of the cultural philosophies that Neto has been embracing as it continues developing its suite of online ecommerce products and we encourage all of our clients to work these strategic philosophies into their business models.
Successful online retailers understand that ‘one size does not fit all’. The online space is developing a level of complexity and sophistication beyond traditional retailing. While providing online retailers with very exciting opportunities the online space also presents them with a dilemma with regards achieving the highest ROI from marketing spend. It is important to remember that as a pure online retailer you need to make sure your customers are ‘coming with you’ on the journey. Being an early adopted in the online ecommerce space can often be an advantage but you need to make sure you have enough customers to survive until the early majority catch up.
While the language used in communication has always varied between generations, never before in history has it been so polarised. The ‘facelessness’ of the online environment has created a whole new way of communicating. The older generation are catching on but how far our communication metamorphoses will progress remains to be seen. However ‘C U @ 8 4 a C/UP’ is a foreign way of communicating for most people over 35 but for 15 to 24 years olds this short hand communication is becoming more common place. Additionally, the mediums where different age groups are obtaining their information are changing rapidly. Traditional media is a ‘dead duck’. Advertising revenues for all major newspapers have been in decline for at least the past four years. Until now the television has been the main source of video media however YouTube is fast taking over and market research by the Neto R&D team clearly shows that the vast majority of those 15 and under are obtaining almost all of their video media content through YouTube.
So successful online retailers need to understand:
1. Which mediums are being used by their target markets?
2. How to communicate to each of their target markets – what language speaks to your customers?
3. How to monitor the return on investment (ROI) from any marketing spend.
4. How to manage negative feedback about your products and service levels.
5. How to prevent Click Fraud.
Each medium has its own protocols and rules of communication. Additionally, the ‘facelessness’ of most SEO’s and Social Media Companies (such as Face Book) means that you need to understand their own rules for marketing to your customers. Face Book for example is known for shutting down sites which they perceive are ‘too commercial’ or that break their rules of engagement. If in doubt our advice from the Neto team is to ‘tread very carefully’. Independent research by our Neto digital marketing team shows that there are many online retailers in Australia who are breaching the Face Book guidelines and they risk delisting at anytime. The following link provides guidelines as to appropriate advertising methods which are acceptable to Face Book and we urge all online retailers to familiarise themselves with it:
https://www.facebook.com/page_
People have always had ‘freedom of speech’ where they have been able to ‘bad mouth’ businesses and if this ‘bad mouthing’ continues to the public domain there are laws around Slandering which are quite onerous. However with online the rise in Troll and other negative activity needs to be monitored by companies.
At Neto we have developed a series of white papers www.neto.com.au/shop/
1. Challenging the existing way of thinking.
2. Communicating to their clients in a language which their clients are comfortable with.
3. Segmenting their marketing efforts to the channels where their clients are.
4. Regularly monitoring a range of analytics that they are collecting about their customer profiles and purchasing patterns.
